Maple Trees’ Spring Fancy

 

The maple trees are flowering right now……a brief burst of blossoms heralding the eruption of new leaves.

Such show-offs!

 

The above photos are of a hard maple tree and the two below are from a soft maple.  You can see the winged propeller seed pods forming.

 

Have a happy day!  Enjoy the springtime tree displays in your area.

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Bessie is supposed to arrive home this evening.  I can’t wait to hear her report about the womens’ conference.

I widened the blog wrappers some more.  If your computer screen will not accommodate the blog’s width, please let me know.  Thanks.

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Trees & Birds of Arbor Day

Though I didn't plant a tree yesterday honor of Arbor Day, I did take pictures of trees. Here's a weeping willow that managed to survive the tornado last year. About half of it was blown down, as you can see. Thankfully, the rest lives on to provide my favorite color combination.....sky blue and spring green!

Yesterday afternoon I had to run into Cedar Falls to pick up the sweet corn seed we had ordered from the Earl May store. On the way, I sidetracked to a rural cemetery where some of my paternal ancestors are buried. This is a good time of year to stop at cemeteries......farmers out planting corn in the surrounding fields will think you are there because of Memorial Day coming up in a few weeks. They won't realize you are in reality an oddball obsessed with taking photos of any interesting thing you can find.

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And, there was something intriguing right next to the cemetery gate…..a mystery tree! I have no idea what its botanical name is. Maybe you can tell me. It was a very tall, pointy-shaped tree, absolutely covered in cones......it must be a conifer of some sort. What is puzzling is that the branches looked more like those of a deciduous tree, with the needles situated in bundles.

Here and there on the branches were these lovely magenta-colored flowers or buds:

 

If you know what kind of tree this is, please say so in a comment. I will try to consult Google or a tree book to get more information, too.

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[Update:  It might be a “Larch” tree, a coniferous deciduous tree, oddly enough. The link states:  In the Civil War era and earlier, it was common to have a larch tree in a town cemetery to symbolize death in the winter and rebirth in the spring.]

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Earlier in the day, my son and I were in Waterloo for an orthodontist appointment. Afterwards, we decided to get a quick treat at Burger King. We were sitting in the drive-through lane and noticed this robin nesting close by amongst vines on a fence. (Click the photo to enlarge it to full-screen to see the robin better.) Just beyond the fence is a busy four-lane street always filled with noisy traffic. Apparently, that doesn't bother Mrs. Robin!

This rooster pheasant scurried by after I dropped my son back at school:

After that, a stripey-necked killdeer dropped in for a brief appearance:

This pair of annoyed Canada geese honked and scolded at the human who was bothering them in their peaceful abode in the wetlands southeast of Readlyn. I don't blame them.

Haha......they got caught on video, too! I hope you can hear them honking over the sound of the wind. If you listen closely, you will hear frogs croaking, too......they've just started their season of singing! Have a great day!

Lessons For Fred

Look at the sight that greeted my eyes when I tried to mail a letter the other day. More risky smooching! The mailman could have reached in and grabbed Fred and Bessie and whisked them off to Canton, China, or Walla Walla, or Timbuktu, or even What Cheer, Iowa! Enough is enough, I say!

A phone call to the Smoochers Anonymous Hotline provided helpful information about a women’s symposium scheduled for this weekend, at a conference center somewhere down the road. You better believe I sent Bessie packing, unmoved as I was by her dramatic display of sobbing and sniffling. Too bad. Tough love is what she needs. Buster wasn’t exactly moved, either.

Meanwhile, I made arrangements for Fred to spend time with an adventurous guy named Kendall who gives lessons in male bonding. The training is a bit costly, but hopefully will be worth it. Fred and Bessie simply MUST learn to do something other than smooch!!

The price included Kendall coming right here to our farm to give the bonding lessons. Isn’t that handy! At first I was taken aback by his formal attire and shoe-less feet, but it was obvious from the get-go that Kendall is a man accustomed to operating on the edge, tuxedo and all. Hopefully, Fred’s experiences with Kendall will resonate in such a way that Fred will grow by leaps and bounds, embracing the realization that his own penchant for smooching in precarious places causes anxiety for Bessie and is detrimental to her self-esteem.

Whoa! Kendall got right down to business! This frightening experience in the car should surely prompt Fred to do some deep soul-searching! Don’t you agree? (Kendall assured me that a percentage of this initial session’s fee goes to Sasquatch the Cat.)

Kendall was ecstatic to see so many trees on our farm. His second session involved the trainee---Fred, in this case---being encouraged to climb as high as possible, then close his eyes and depend on Kendall to provide a safe way down. Its all about trust and empathy. If all goes as planned, Fred will learn what its like to be forced to depend on someone else, and thus be more empathetic to Bessie’s plight when he lures her to dangerous places for smooching.

The giddily spinning wheels of the hay rake provided yet another opportunity for a breathtakingly risky learning experience. Fred clung to the tines for dear life while Kendall, being quite talented and coordinated, was able to utilize his arms for balancing. And, in fact, this lesson was all about learning to maintain balance in life.

Kendall required Fred to climb the elevator, too……right on the edge, no less. Fred took it like a man, appearing completely nonplussed. This lesson was about poise. At one point, Kendall spotted my husband out in the field and gave a hearty wave. What a refreshingly friendly guy!

Last, but not least, Kendall and Fred spent time swinging to and fro in the pockets of Husband’s chore jeans drying in the breeze on the clothesline. Actually, I thought this particular lesson appeared to be more about fun than anything else. I suppose Kendall feels obligated to include a little bit of that sort of thing in his sessions, otherwise the trainees might become grumpy and difficult to manage.

Let’s hope this male bonding training will prove beneficial to Fred, and ultimately to Bessie, too. Kendall came across as a very pleasant guy, well-dressed and coiffed, with an ever-present smile on his face. Normally, I’d be suspicious of a guy with a constant smile pasted on his face, but in Kendall’s case, the happy expression seemed truly sincere. When the training was finished, as he was preparing to leave, I asked Kendall about his formal attire....and his bare feet. He shrugged and told me sheepishly that he wears the tuxedo because he has NO other clothes, and unfortunately his shoes went missing many years ago. Can you imagine that!? My goodness. I then handed Kendall his check and he went on his way.....hopefully straight to a mens' clothing store.

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I do hope Bessie is absorbing helpful insights at the women’s symposium. We’ll find out soon enough.

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SkyWatch #41

Welcome! These photos were taken Wednesday evening at my home in northeast Iowa, USA.

I didn’t think I would have any scenes for SkyWatch this week, but this lovely sunset showed up as if right on cue!

As they say……if you see a gorgeous sunset, be sure to turn around and view the eastern sky, too:

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And, here’s a scene from the farm on Thursday……my husband digging up rocks in the field, under a lovely blue sky:

Thank you for stopping by! Visit Skyley.com to find ALL the SkyWatch links for this week.

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Facing Up To Facebook

Yeah, pathetic though it is……I signed up for Facebook a few days ago. My sister talked me into it. On my Facebook “wall” yesterday I posted this super exciting photo of the oats coming up out in the field. Whoo-eee!

I now have a total of---(drum roll, please)---ELEVEN “friends” on Facebook. Haha……I did a search of my Hotmail contacts and found a few of you bloggers on Facebook, too. Some of you have over 100 friends! Wow…..I’m in awe!

Another search I did was for my high school classmates from eons ago. Forty-nine of us graduated in 1976. Guess how many are on Facebook……a whopping FOUR! Yours truly, and three sports-jock-type guys. I’m not planning to invite them to be my friends just yet, and I doubt they’ll be pounding on my Facebook door for friendship, either. One of them is an OB/GYN…..he always was one of the hunkier guys in the class, thus his choice of medical specialty has provided many shudders and chuckles for his former classmates of the female persuasion. No way will I bother him to be my friend…..no way.

Mostly, my Facebook friends are my sister, my kids, their cousins, and my husband’s cousins’ kids living in far-flung parts of the country. Facebook could be a handy way to keep updated on their busy lives and see photos of weddings, babies, and other milestones. The older generations, now gone, might have approved of Facebook for that reason, I think. Since the old folks have passed on , we hardly ever see the far-extended family anymore, nor see photos of them very often. The world changes……people move away……that’s just how it is.

One of my Facebook friends is an older lady, now widowed, who taught for many years at our Lutheran dayschool. All four of my kids have fond memories of her. She was always very interested in everyone and encouraged creativitiy…..not all teachers accomplish that. Her Facebook page shows her to have over 250 friends, most of them her former students. Good for her!

At this point, my impression of Facebook is that it could be described as extremely miniscule blogging, the posts tending to be brief as brief can be…..like my caption for yesterday’s oats photo: “Oats are up! They were planted on April 4th.” Wowser. Facebookers wouldn’t want to know much more than that, anyway. “T.M.I.” (Too Much Information) belongs on blogs…..so blog on, bloggers!! I’ll give Facebook a try for awhile; if I don’t care for it…..splitsville!

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P.S. – Here’s the fun that was going on around the farm yesterday:

Picking up a few rocks….

Notice how dry the ground is…..we need a soaking rain.

And, the neighbor was planting his corn with a fancy-dancy new planter:

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Have a great day, folks!! (Bessie is still attending that therapeutic symposium for women and Fred is being mentored by a male bonding expert……I’ll post a report soon.)

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Kitties’ Eyes Now Open

On Saturday, Miss Kitty’s 2-week-old babies opened their eyes for the first time. Now they look up and hiss at anyone who dares to peer into their box!

Of course, when Mama’s there, the kitties busy themselves with nursing:

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Funny story……last week my brother-in-law had a birthday.  My sister had informed me that they had two mother cats who were due to give birth soon, so I picked out a birthday card with kitties on it to send to my brother-in-law.  Like many guys I know, he claims to hate cats.  Pictured on the front of the birthday card were 7 kitties around a big tub of milk and the caption was “KEGGER!”.

On the day after his birthday, my sister sent me a message on Facebook:  “The birthday card was perfect!  How did you know??”  One of the mother cats had given birth to SEVEN kitties right on her husband’s birthday!  That’s just really special and I’m SO very happy for my brother-in-law.  (He thrilled, too, of course.)

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Bessie is attending a support group meeting today and I will tell you about that in an upcoming post.

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Have a wonderful day!

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Weekend Adventures

Here’s a few scenes from last weekend's busy-ness. On Saturday, I spent most of the day on campus at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. (My mom went with me; these irresistible daffodils were blooming in front of her house.)

We were at UNI to attend the Camp Adventure Dessert Fest and Program. There was quite a crowd of parents and friends on hand; after enjoying the dessert bar in Maucker Union, we all filed through a tunnel into venerable Lang Hall:

Our destination was the auditorium, site of the afternoon’s Camp Adventure send-off program. I'm too lazy to explain Camp Adventure to you, so here's the entry from Wikipedia:

Camp Adventure is a program run by the University of Northern Iowa that sends American college students to American military bases, embassies, and British Military installations throughout the world. These students run day camps as well overnight, and sports camps. Counselors also act as lifeguards for the children of military personnel stationed on bases.

Camp Adventure was founded at the University of Oregon in 1985. At its inception, the program sent 12 students to three sites in Korea. In 1997, it sent approximately 600 students to 118 program sites in 16 countries, including United Kingdom, Turkey, Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Bahrain, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and the United States.

The camp counselors are trained in games and first aid, as well as how to deal with the problems that many military children have due to the isolation, frequent moves, and dangerous profession of their parents.

The counselors train for several months at the University of Northern Iowa and other Universities across the nation. They are then sent to the destination for the summer. Students are responsible for their own passport and visas, but the program provides transportation, room, and board. An extensive background check is performed on all counselor applicants.

Although the program is based at the University of Northern Iowa, Camp Adventure Youth Services students come from over 80 colleges and universities participate in this service-learning program that allows them to gain skills and experience related to youth services and program management.

Counselors receive 12 hours of college credit for participating in the program.

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This year's theme is "Catch the Magic". The students shown in this video--taken in the Lang Hall auditorium--are from colleges in Iowa:

My daughter was near the back of the group, shown in the center of this next photo. She's very excited for the chance to go to Europe this summer!

The program was interesting, though VERY long…..three hours! Yipes, it was difficult to sit that long…..and stay awake. There were skits and demonstrations by the students, plus several speakers, including the founder of Camp Adventure, Dr. Christopher Edginton. His definition of "magic" is: when something exceeds your expectations. (My own advice is to avoid having expectations......then everything that happens is magic!)

FINALLY, finally…..we were dismissed from the auditorium out into the surrounding high-ceilinged halls and stairwells of the old college building:

Fascinating architectural embellishments were the perfect companions to the lovely flowering trees adjacent to the front entrance:

On our way back to the parking lot, Mom and I meandered through the old part of campus. Here is Lawther Hall, a womens’ dormitory, its attic reportedly haunted by a ghost named “Augie”.

We were parked near the blocky, top-heavy Schindler Education Center, where education majors spend much of their time. Next door is an authentic one-room schoolhouse…..which, unfortunately, I did not think to snap a photo of.

Later in the evening, my mom, stepdad, and I, returned to campus for this theatre production:

Eurydice was performed in the black box Bertha Martin Theatre. There is seating on all four sides, with most of the show taking place down on the center floor. A few scenes ventured off onto small, elevated corner stages…..there is one shown in the next photo. My daughter operated lights on the catwalks in the ceiling---“up in the cats”, in her words.

Eurydice is a story out of Greek mythology, the deeper meanings of which are mostly lost on one such as myself who has never formally studied those classic tales. Parts of the play reminded me of Our Town, the biblical story of Lot’s wife, and possibly even Adam and Eve. The story’s setting was in the Underworld where Eurydice (yoo-RIH-dah-see) found herself after making a bad choice shortly after her marriage to Orpheus, whose head was ever full of music, an exasperation for Eurydice when she was alive. In the Underworld, Eurydice meets up with her deceased father. Their first challenge is to find a way to communicate with each other; the ensuing interaction between the two was fascinating. We had close-up views of the actors’ facial expressions due to the scenes taking place right in front of where we were sitting. Oh, and guess what.....the deceased ones, Eurydice and her father, had also forgotten how to read.....do you know what they did with letters and books in an attempt to "read" them?

Unfortunately, Eurydice had another serious problem---unwanted attention from The Lord of the Underworld, an obnoxiously lascivious, underwear-clad goon. In time, grieving Orpheus found a way to descend to the Underworld to try and find Eurydice--you may have heard of this story. Things didn't go very well as Orpheus attempted to follow the Lord of the Underworld's rules for a successful rescue of Eurydice. Lurking on the perimeter of every scene were stones which could speak, with sarcastic ridicule being their specialty. The Underworld seemed not a very nice place to be, that's for sure. The environs of the black box theatre was perfect for this murky, mind-stretching story.

My favorite line in the play was when Eurydice's distraught father asked the Lord of the Underworld, "How does one remember how to forget?" His earnest question was met by derisive laughter from the evil lord, of course.

As we left the theatre after the show, my mom and stepdad were shaking their heads at the strangeness of the story. Like me, they aren't much familiar with Greek myths. I must admit, Eurydice has provided food for thought as I now ponder what this or that aspect of the story might mean. Maybe that's the value of mythic tales......they challenge you to think, and are played out upon a foundation of deep meaning which can blossom as you view it in your mind's eye, similar to the way this performance was acted out right on the ground in front of us.....practically inside our personal space.

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On Sunday, Husband and I drove to the Quad-Cities for a surprise birthday gathering for our son who's turning 25 years old today! Goodness...time flies! How well I remember the day he was born; I had spent the previous day outdoors, picking up sticks and doing other yardwork. By evening, I was completely exhausted and fell into bed at 7 p.m., which was fortuitous, as the waters broke in the early morning hours. He was born around 2 p.m., I believe. It was the day before Easter, and snow fell the next day---on Easter! I can recall standing at the hospital window watching the snowflakes swirling down.

The surprise party was fun even though it rained most of the afternoon. Husband and I ended up staying there through the evening; our younger son was home doing the milking chores. We ended up in a nail-biting “500” card game with our son and daughter-in-law. I haven't played for years, but it all came back to me like second nature. I even scored two nello hands! Nello--or, “noler”, as the old-timers call it—is my favorite! Turning a losing hand into a winner. Bad fortune into good. Its fun to flip the rules upside down once in awhile!

I enjoyed this view through my son and daughter-in-law’s dining room window…..right into the treetops!

The weekend kind of wiped me out......the socializing was wonderful, of course, but, enough is enough, and ALL that sitting.....good grief! I needed to catch on stuff around home---you know how it goes---so I've been trying to avoid sitting down at the computer for a couple of days.

You may be worried that I’ve been neglecting Fred and Bessie. I understand your concern. Fear not, though, they are in good hands…..er, tail. Looks like Mookie has developed a close bond with the lip-locked pair. Maybe I’ll let him have that talk with Bessie…..

Blessings to you all!

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Green Conqueror

The conqueror marches in….

Silent clamor of green overtakes brown….

God’s magic wand of sunshine and warmth….

Bursts shuttered buds, startles cold seeds….

Urgent awakening with loving intent….

Renews a dormant world….

Spring has come!

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Fred & Bessie Get Edgy

Yesterday morning, after being milked, the “real cows” congregated at their office water cooler.  They jostled, shoved and slurped while exchanging the latest farmyard gossip.

Rumors were a-flying and tongues a-wagging, that’s for sure……with one tongue even getting caught in a nostril.  Now, there’s a dandy trick for you!   

The gossip was centered on the hot new couple in the neighborhood…..Fred and Bessie.  It seems the affectionate couple has been spotted smooching up a storm here and there around the farm.  I was aghast at the rumors being sloshed about there at the water fountain, but shortly thereafter I became an eyewitness to the sizzling and VERY edgy behavior of F & B.  Goodness gracious…..I walked into the machinery shed, and…..well, see for yourselves: 

Talk about living on the edge…..I guess so!  Fred and Bessie must have learned this risky, uninhibited behavior from their previous hosts.  (Anyone care to ‘fess up?)  

Understandably, F & B are irresistibly attracted to each other and kissing is certainly permissible around here, but on a tractor?  Or a chisel plow?

Or the back of the grain truck box?

And, even on the front bumper!   

Oh, good grief……on the tire of the manure spreader, too?!  Yuck!  Of all places!  Why would Bessie put up with a guy luring her to such a filthy spot for a romantic rendevous??!  Is she really THAT naive….and daft, to boot?  Has she no self-respect?  I will need to have a serious woman-to-woman talk with her. 

Later on, I caught Fred and Bessie taunting the “real” cows, daring them to find boyfriends, no less!  Sheesh.  But, please, NO…..I don’t want a herd of bulls showing up here at our farm.  No way.  My, my, what a disturbing turn of events……Fred and Bessie could have a terribly unsettling influence on our formerly contented and sensible herd of bovine females.

What have I gotten myself and the “real” cows into by agreeing to have Fred and Bessie stay here on our farm?  I’m open to suggestions and advice on how to handle this rather delicate and awkward situation.  Please help!!